There are several types of business to business partnerships that a business owner may pursue in order to improve their business. The main objective behind most business relationships is to find new customer leads and convert them into increased sales and revenue for both participating companies. Consider these four primary types of business to business partnerships in order to achieve the goal of increased sales and revenue including: suppliers, customers, resellers or companies with significant existing sales channels and/or vendors. Each type of partnership has its own unique set of advantages and challenges for successfully implementing and maintaining, therefore it’s important to evaluate each type to understand which is in your best interest to pursue.

Suppliers

Creating business relationships with suppliers usually makes great financial sense and can lead to unique business opportunities. Many suppliers are in a very competitive environment and constantly have to find new channels to sell their products. As a rule suppliers will be willing to give a business partner special pricing, expedited customer service and business referrals when opportunities that are out of their scope present themselves. However; there are some disadvantages with aligning too closely with a single supplier. It is recommended that you keep your supplier partnership agreements as open and flexible as possible to allow multiple partnerships to exist in the same space thus avoiding price spikes or product unavailability due to unforeseen partner problems.

Customers

The best types of business referrals come from existing customers. Provide a revenue share or special pricing for customers that are able to deliver leads that turn into new clients. Developing an incentive program for customers that make referrals is a win-win situation. Often a simple discount can keep your business at the forefront of the customer’s mind when their meeting with someone that fits your target market.

Resellers or Agents

Many businesses that have large databases of potential customers will actively sell a product through their sales channels for a fee and/or a revenue share. Building partnerships with resellers can quickly grow a company’s ability to reach out to the market. Resellers will invest time and resources to market their partner’s products and put their sales force to work selling the product. Small businesses with limited staff to actively sell can benefit greatly from these types of partnership deals.

Vendors

Finding other vendors that sell a complementing product is the right partnership solution for a company that by itself has a product that is not the full solution that a customer is looking to purchase. An example is a computer hardware manufacturer partnering with a company that makes software to do unique tasks that a customer needs.

As a business owner seeking additional deal flow, it is important to evaluate all of the business to business partnerships that are possible for your company. Regardless of whether the focus is on vendors, resellers, suppliers, or existing customers, if properly executed business to business partnerships are one of the best strategies for business growth.

Christian Fea is CEO of Synertegic, Inc. A Joint Venture Marketing firm. He exemplifies how to profit from Joint Venture relationships by creating profit centers with minimal risk and maximum profitability.

Discover more Joint Venture Marketing Strategies join his free report on Joint Venture Marketing.

As a small business owner or business development executive there are several things to remember to do when establishing new joint venture marketing business partnerships. The following is a list of critical items to be conscious of when building business partnerships that will make sure your business finds the right partners and mutually beneficial business deals that maximize the opportunities and results in growing your company. All business partnerships have their positive and negatives, however as a business executive it is critical that you understand the risks and areas to focus on to reduce small problems from turning into deal killers.

Top 5 To Do’s When Building Business Partnerships

1. Research – It is nearly impossible to build successful business partnership without doing a considerable amount of market research and analyzing the business of potential partners. Failing to adequately understand a prospective partner can only lead to future problems. This could be something as straightforward as not having access to the right client base or simply being a mismatch culturally. Therefore it is absolutely necessary to spend the time and resources to research the opportunity fully.

2. Examine Customer Base – Before finalizing a partnership that promises to give your brand or products access to new customers, request customer demographic data and information on a couple of their key customers that can be cross referenced.

3. Meet in Person – In-person meetings with the executive management of the potential business partner is always better. While most communication can occur in the traditional forms of email and phone calls, it is best to ask for an in-person meeting very early on in the process when determining whether a business is a good candidate for a partnership.

4. Develop Performance Based Incentives – Depending on the nature of the business partnership that you’re creating, compensation can come in many different forms. Packages that include revenue shares and/or bonuses will ultimately reap more rewards compared to partnerships that do not include performance based incentives for growing the partnership. Be sure to include methods for compensating specific team members as some will be capable of selling more than their peers. You may also want to offer bonus incentives to the sales team as a whole for their combined efforts.

5. Hire Experts to Eliminate Errors – Small business owners need support in executing successful partnerships and maintaining focus on existing customers and product development. Enlisting outside support will ensure the partnership is built properly. Hire a lawyer that can provide a partnership template that can be used for drafting the agreement between the two companies. Using a template will reduce legal fees when forming future partnerships simply by having a lawyer finalize and sign off on any adjustments to the template with each new partner.

You may also want to find a business consultant that specializes in joint venture marketing partnerships. These consultants will save you valuable time by identifying new partners and making first contact. Hire the right consultant and you can get your foot in the door with your dream business partners and have their expertise at your disposal required to draft a partnership agreement that will ensure a profitable business relationship.

Keep these ideas in mind the next time you are in charge of building a business partnership and you will be much more likely to align with the right partner, in a mutually beneficial relationship that can be put together in a relatively quick time frame.

Christian Fea is CEO of Synertegic, Inc. A Joint Venture Marketing firm. He exemplifies how to profit from Joint Venture relationships by creating profit centers with minimal risk and maximum profitability.

Discover more Joint Venture Marketing Strategies join his free report on Joint Venture Marketing.

Developing strategic business partnerships should be part of every small business owner’s growth plan for the company. A strategic business partnership has several benefits for the companies involved including: access to existing customers, quick penetration into new markets, enhanced branding, and others that may not be so apparent such as cost reduction benefits from utilizing a partners employee base or getting price breaks from suppliers due to an increase in orders to fulfill new demand. The best business executives and small business owners understand that it is very difficult to execute growth plans alone and aligning with other companies that have mutual interests and a shared target demographic is the right solution. Building a successful business partnership has its difficulties and limitations as well, but the time spent in researching, negotiating, and finally implementing a new strategic business partnership can result in a tremendous return of investment that would rival any internal efforts in the same amount of time.

Find New Customers in Target Markets

The cost of acquiring a new customer is never cheap. However; by aligning with the right partners that can deliver clients a small business can then focus on providing a high level of customer service and getting the most out of what strategic business relationships provide. After a company’s executives have decided that forming business partnerships is the right path for the business, it’s important to research and identify a strategic business partner that can either lead you to many future business partners or has a large existing customer base in the area you intend to service. Just because a company has a large number of customers and they’re in a similar industry does not always mean they will be the right choice. The potential new customers need to be in a geographic location that you can easily service unless the partner is willing to take on additional roles and responsibilities, which could range from sales calls to product delivery to customer service.

Strengthen Brand and Marketing Capabilities

The right strategic business partner should elevate the business’s brand and reputation in the industry that it services. When researching and identifying a partner make sure to take note of how the other company is viewed by its customers, competitors, and the market in general as any positive or negatives will rub off on your brand due to the execution of a business partnership.  This can be the quickest way for a small business to achieve name recognition within its industry, by developing a relationship with a large business that already commands respect and is known for delivery high quality products and services with excellent customer care. It is critical during negotiations to fight for co-branding, which may be difficult depending on the nature of the business relationship. If a major concern is being overshadowed by a partner in marketing due to their size and resources than it’s important to make those concerns known prior to moving forward. However, for many small business owners the right strategic partner may be simply white labeling the product or service and not co-branding at all in order to provide a seamless experience for their customers. If the revenue numbers are going to be high enough does it really matter, whether or not the end customer knows the brand?

Growing a business is never easy, but with great partners it can be much more rewarding experience. A small business owner that embraces the ideas of forming strategic business partnerships that are mutually beneficial is much more likely to succeed than the one that wants to go it alone or do it their own way every time.

Christian Fea is CEO of Synertegic, Inc. A Joint Venture Marketing firm. He exemplifies how to profit from Joint Venture relationships by creating profit centers with minimal risk and maximum profitability.

Discover more Joint Venture Marketing Strategies join his free report on Joint Venture Marketing.

Location based mobile apps such as Foursquare and SCVGR are another way for small businesses to reach customers that are actively using their mobile devices to update friends and followers about what they are doing including being your customer. Whether you want your business to be included in location based mobile applications or not, it is highly likely that your business is already listed as these mobile web apps pull information from popular business listing sites including Google places.

There are several marketing strategies that a small business owner can implement to make the most out of these types of mobile marketing opportunities. Creating formal and informal specials to customers using these apps can help increase your company’s exposure through their viral nature by getting more customers to check-in and share comments, reviews or basic information about your brand or company with their friends through social sites like Facebook and Twitter.

Sponsored Deals

Businesses can work closely with a location based app company such as Foursquare to promote a special deal to customers directly through the app. This can be a very effective way of marketing to potential customers that are near your business. People in close proximity will receive information about your promotion. This type of paid advertising promotes the deal to all users in the region and requires a person to click the check-in button in order to receive the coupon which will in turn provide your business with demographic details about the people visiting your location for the advertised special.

Special Location Based Promotions

Another strategy that can be less cost intensive is to provide discounts or special deals for customers that choose to check-in through any number of different mobile apps. Simply create a nice marketing flyer and place it near the cash register or online check out cart that proclaims “Check-in on Foursquare” or “Check-in on Facebook” and receive “XYZ” discount or special offer. This can help a business quickly begin to trend in the local area making other users of these apps more likely to see your business.

This type of marketing is relatively inexpensive and customers generally have no problem saying something nice about a business they frequent that is also giving them a deal on one of their favorite products or services. One of the keys to being successful at marketing as a small business owner is to keep looking for trends such as location based apps and thinking how to tap into those communities of users without having to shell out the big bucks that a formally sponsored marketing campaign would cost.

Give location tagging apps a try for marketing your business to local customers and get them engaged with the brand online by actively supporting the company simply by checking-in or making a nice comment about your products or services.

Christian Fea is CEO of Synertegic, Inc. A Joint Venture Marketing firm. He exemplifies how to profit from Joint Venture relationships by creating profit centers with minimal risk and maximum profitability.

Discover more Joint Venture Marketing Strategies join his free report on Joint Venture Marketing.

Companies like Groupon and Living Social have developed large networks of customers that are actively seeking new products and services. Whether to participate in a daily is a big decision to make for a small business owner that is looking for exposure to a large existing customer base in their area. The deal sites are known for taking a significant portion of a daily deal and the price being charged to the end customer is already usually below the price a company would normally charge for their services. This is what attracts the huge number of potential customers, however, if done without fully thinking out the true costs of providing the deal and servicing the influx of customers a business can go take a massive financial hit if customers do not stay around and make purchases in the future.

A joint venture marketing relationship with other local businesses may not have the overall reach that a Groupon or Living Social has in a specific demographic, but the revenue share terms will likely be much more favorable and still present your product and service to your target demographic. A daily deal can be great one time marketing campaign for some businesses and so it should be considered as a strategy for any business.

Issues with Groupon to be aware of:

1. Many small businesses have lost considerable amounts of money due to the deals that they have done. Groupon sales reps are not there to make sure that the deal is an ultimate success for your business’s long term future, only that the deals are sold at the best price and revenue split for Groupon.

2. While some companies have received decent terms from Groupon others have had a worse than 50% revenue share with the deal site.

3. Many of the customers are only there for the cheap prices and are not your customers, they are Groupon customers and will be purchasing another deal from another provider the next time they need the same product or service that you provide.

4. People will travel to your location for a great deal, but may never return due to the longer distance from their home.

5. It can cheapen your brand. Customers that know you and made a purchase through Groupon or Living Social may resist paying full price in hopes that you’ll do another super sale in the future.

There are other issues to be aware of such as brand control, customer satisfaction, upsetting existing customers who did not purchase the Groupon deal and many more. Unless your business really needs a last ditch effort to reach as many customers as possible, a different approach to customer acquisition would be best.

Find the right business partners that have your target demographic as their existing customers and create a joint venture marketing relationship that allows both businesses to equally benefit and grow rather than getting a daily deal site rich.

Christian Fea is CEO of Synertegic, Inc. A Joint Venture Marketing firm. He exemplifies how to profit from Joint Venture relationships by creating profit centers with minimal risk and maximum profitability.

Discover more Joint Venture Marketing Strategies join his free report on Joint Venture Marketing.

Small business owners have a wide array of marketing choices when selecting the right online marketing strategy to pursue with the goal of finding new leads that actually turn into sales. The most popular being paid advertising, SEO campaigns, and Social Media Marketing. Making a site that is streamlined to be attractive to the search engines through Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is one of the most talked about tactics that drives traffic to websites generally through Google. It is always important to build a website based on proven SEO principals, but in today’s online world failing to engage with the community through social media sites is a big mistake.

Google now puts value on the number of shares, likes, +1’s, etc. that a site receives when producing its search results. Therefore social media campaigns also have an impact on a company’s search rankings for their desired keywords. A great SEO strategy with lots of backlinks is no longer enough to gain high visibility and traction online. The best marketing campaigns for a small business include a combination of both solid SEO principles and promotion of social media channels. Paid search advertising and banner ad space can get a new site the exposure it needs to reach customers; but it is usually way too expensive for most small business marketing budgets.

Basic SEO Principals

In order to get the most out of your social media campaigns it is wise to have a site built based on best practices concerning search engine optimization. The following are a few guidelines that are important for your web development team to follow when designing your site. But doing these alone will not drive the traffic you desire until you begin sharing your website’s content on Twitter, Facebook, and elsewhere providing readers the opportunity to share, like or +1 the content you are distributing.

• Create a site map.
• Develop unique page titles, keywords, and page descriptions.
• Use keywords in headers and body of text, but don’t overdo it.
• Create backlinks, but use a family of similar keywords not just one or two.
• Include blog titles in the URL for the company blog

Of course there are dozens of other aspects for building a website with SEO in mind and so it is important that you have a web developer that is adept at SEO techniques when building the website. Many small business owners fall into the trap of trying to implement what they read about SEO strategies that pertain to affiliate marketing companies that are only seeking traffic through Google search and are not actively selling a product themselves or building a brand that customers will return to.

Social Media to Drive Traffic

Using Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Youtube, and other sites to promote content about the business, products, and services provided should be the majority of your focus. Building a community of people interested in the industry the business is in, is much more effective than building thousands of links on irrelevant websites. Individuals that actively follow a business on Facebook or engage with the company on Twitter are actually helping to promote the brand to their followers and friends simply by engaging and having a discussion. This can be the best kind of exposure as the business is able to reach additional people that may have similar interests. By focusing on creating an effective social media marketing strategy the business has a much greater chance of being noticed by others that will take the time to write or comment either on the social sites, but also on their own blogs and other websites which can result in very high quality links. Building links is a huge part of any effective SEO plan and one of the best ways to get others to link to your content and discuss your brand is through unique and original content that is shared through social sites.

Make sure your site has the basic requirements that the search engines are looking for. Be sure to have a well-designed website and leverage social media to generate the high quality links and discussions that will really send traffic to your site. If you have the ability to create original content then you don’t need to worry about creating an intricate link building scheme as it will more than likely end up getting sniffed out by Google anyways. Small business owners are much better off spending their online marketing budgets building value for their community and actively participating in industry focused discussions throughout the web.

Christian Fea is CEO of Synertegic, Inc. A Joint Venture Marketing firm. He exemplifies how to profit from Joint Venture relationships by creating profit centers with minimal risk and maximum profitability.

Discover more Joint Venture Marketing Strategies join his free report on Joint Venture Marketing.

Small businesses can attain incredible rates of growth with the addition of the perfect joint venture partner however this can take a considerable amount of time and internal resources to pursue new partner opportunities. Small business owners may want to leverage hiring an expert business development consultant to do the research and the “meet and greets” required in developing a new potential business relationships. Make sure the consultant working with your business is in tune with the dynamics of your company and all your core business processes so they may serve your interests to the best of their ability. It may not be easy to hand over these responsibilities during the early stages of developing a joint venture business partner, but for many small business owners using outside support allows them to focus on continuing to service their existing customers, focus on proven lead generating channels and existing marketing activities. This way when the time is right you can meet with vetted businesses that are also seeking new partners and joint venture opportunities.

Finding the Right Partners

If an outside consultant is going to be successful in finding the right joint venture marketing partner for your small business it is critical that they really understand your business. This goes much further than just reading the website, reviewing product spec documents, and having a meeting or two with the executive team. It is best that they spend a day or two in your facility and meet with all of the team members that impact a successful business transaction as well as the individuals that are responsible for providing customer service. For a small business this can be handled in a day or two with several meetings. Not only will your outside consultant be fully prepared to represent your company to potential partners they should have a good understanding of the company culture and include that in their assessment of who might be the right partner for the business.

The biggest reason most businesses even larger firms reach out to professional business development consultants is there existing list of contacts. It is wise to hire a consultant that has recent work experience in your industry or desired geographical region. Having someone that can meet with your team and quickly start making calls to set up preliminary meetings to discuss a business opportunity that they think will fit well for both  companies will lead to quickly closing a partnership and moving forward with the implementation phase of a new joint venture marketing partnership.

Compensating Business Development Consultants

Compensation for business development consultants will vary from person to person and what skills they bring to the table. Financial compensation for a consultant with high level business contacts at a specific company will differ greatly than a deal that is put together for a consultant to do research and additional legwork to identify and approach the right partners. The former may want to see a much higher revenue share for the deals that they close whereas the latter may be more inclined to be paid an hourly or on a fixed monthly rate with a smaller bonus for each closed deal. Each business is different and so it is highly recommended that before moving forward with a consultant for business development that the person in charge of the company’s finances, run some basic projections and financial numbers to determine what can be offered to a consultant that can quickly close new deals.

Business consultants can assist a small business grow quickly through establishing joint venture marketing partnerships with the right partners that fit the company culture and can deliver to their existing customer base. Most small business owners need to focus their time and energy on servicing existing business and marketing campaigns thus hiring an outside consultant for joint venture support is a great way to not add additional stress on a sales and executive team. Consider using outside business development support the next time your small business is looking to grow into a new market or geographical region and hire individuals that already know the area and can quickly put together a list of hot leads for potential partners.

Christian Fea is CEO of Synertegic, Inc. A Joint Venture Marketing firm. He exemplifies how to profit from Joint Venture relationships by creating profit centers with minimal risk and maximum profitability.

Discover more Joint Venture Marketing Strategies join his free report on Joint Venture Marketing.

Small business owners that develop relationships with their best customers can receive excellent referrals in the form of new business as well as partnerships with other companies within the industry. Marketing can be very expensive and with limited budgets many small businesses can gain an advantage by tapping into the rolodex of their customers whenever possible. Many people that you interact with on a regular basis during your daily business activities will be more than willing to make an introduction or referral, but you have to ask. I’ve found that most business relationships can lead to at least a few new opportunities and sometimes many more so it’s wise to take the time for lunches, dinners, sporting events, rounds of golf, and other casual activities that can help build your ecosystem of business professionals willing to make introductions and referrals.

Develop Individual Relationships with Key Customers

Taking the time to build individual relationships with your best customers can be advantages for many reasons including; finding new clients, creating introductions to new business opportunities and gaining referrals that close. Every customer interaction is a potential link to a new customer so make sure you take the time to educate consumers about opportunities to make referrals and the discounts or cash payments they may receive for making an introduction or referral. A typical activity that should be done on a regular basis is to send out emails about product updates and new services that also mention the opportunity for making referrals to new customers.

It’s important that you are close with your key customers and business partners that provide the bulk of your referral business and this is best done in a setting away from the office or in traditional meetings. Key clients and partners should be wined and dined and taken care of based on the importance of the role they play in the growth of your business. There are many ways to show appreciation to a key person in your professional ecosystem. Business referrals and revenue shares are always appreciated and a great way to solidify a business relationship with a customer that helps expand your business. Additional methods for rewarding contributing players include; a nice lunch on your tab or maybe tickets to a sporting event that show your appreciation without having to directly dole out cash. Other gestures that can be much appreciated are gift certificates for nice restaurants in your local area or a weekend getaway at a nearby resort. Again make sure to reward your business ecosystem, but do so according to the value they provide for the growth of your businesses.

Ask for the Business

Many small company owners are fearful to ask directly for someone’s business when it’s actually the best way to do it. If you don’t ask, people will often think that you’re busy, have plenty of deal flow or not actively seeking new clients. Consequently the people that have great connections for you will simply not offer even though they are willing to help. Small business owners need to routinely ask customers and business associates for client referrals. By keeping a log of your communications with different customers and business relationships in your CRM system you will not need to worry about feeling like you are asking the same person too frequently. It’s critical that you remain in the forefront of your business acquaintances’ minds in order for them to remember you and your company when they interact with someone that could use your product or service. Send birthday cards, make occasional calls and drop by to say “hello” to key customers and people your business interacts with in order to keep those relationships fresh and relevant.

Every small business owner needs to maximize their business and customer relations in order to reach the next customer or next hot lead. Make sure to reward your ecosystem for providing quality leads that close and don’t be afraid to ask for business or client referrals.

Christian Fea is CEO of Synertegic, Inc. A Joint Venture Marketing firm. He exemplifies how to profit from Joint Venture relationships by creating profit centers with minimal risk and maximum profitability.

Discover more Joint Venture Marketing Strategies join his free report on Joint Venture Marketing.

A joint venture marketing partnership gets a business and their line of products and/or services in front of new customers, but failure to execute satisfactorily will kill the deal. If you are unable to properly service the inflow of customers and ensure satisfied clients than the partnership flow of hot leads will dry up and many partners may walk away from the deal if they feel customers have been impacted negatively.

The biggest fear of any joint venture partner is how there customers will be treated from the start of the sales cycle to the delivery of the goods or services and any issues that may arise in between. No one wants to be the person that recommends a company only for that person to have an unpleasant experience. This needs to be a number one priority for heavily sales focused organizations that have teams constantly pushing for the next deal to close. Create processes in the exchange between partners to make sure customers are followed up with on specific time intervals post sales transaction to ensure any issues are resolved quickly and efficiently.

Ticket System for Issues

Depending on the size of the partner businesses and the number of potential customers it is wise to have a ticket system in place for reporting issues. This system should be made available to all partners for the purpose of responding to customer service issues as they arise in order to make sure they’re handled in an efficient and timely manner. There’s nothing worse then being a customer with a problem and feeling like you are contacting a black hole. Create an online email form where customers can fill out requests or ask questions. Make sure the online ticket system has an automated response to reassure the customer that their issue has been received and will be addressed soon.

Log Problems & Update During Meetings

Logging all customer problems should be mandatory in the partnership agreement so that both parties can improve the customer experience. Both partner companies should be seeking clients that will actively refer their business based on a smooth and professional customer service experience. During meetings with partners resolving customer complaints and problems with service should be addressed without delay and if there is a string of issues that stem from a single problem do not wait to address the problem at a later date get it fixed immediately. It can be easy to avoid making changes to personal or procedures, but that’s why any partnership needs to start slow and work out any kinks between the two companies servicing the customer together.

Reward Excellent Customer Service

If you have an employee that is repeatedly acknowledged by customers as especially helpful, make sure to reward that employee in a way that fits your company’s culture. Whether it’s a small bonus or gift certificate, employees that go above and beyond to provide excellent service deserve recognition for the work they’re putting in. Resolving customer problems and dealing with issues that the sales team may have not been clear about can be difficult on a customer support team member. For this reason it’s extremely important to do everything possible to make sure the marketing and sales pitches are consistent across the board.

Take the time to make consumers feel special and you’ll be rewarded with long term customers that ultimately assist you in attracting new business by their referrals. Failure to provide consistent and excellent customer service will only cost your business in the long run by losing crucial customer referrals. Spend time with your front line of customer support team to understand the issues that they’re facing repeatedly to try and resolve them from occurring altogether in the future.

Christian Fea is CEO of Synertegic, Inc. A Joint Venture Marketing firm. He exemplifies how to profit from Joint Venture relationships by creating profit centers with minimal risk and maximum profitability.

Discover more Joint Venture Marketing Strategies join his free report on Joint Venture Marketing.

It can be impossible to stop unknown problems from occurring with a joint venture marketing relationship, but as a small business owner it’s critical to identify problems and either address them or take the appropriate actions to terminate the relationship and focus on more fertile ground. There are several critical areas of a business partnership to be conscious of at all times including: customer service and satisfaction, tracking referrals, accounting and revenue shares and promoting a positive brand image to the market in general. If an issue arises in any of these areas, it is absolutely necessary to spend the time to fix the root cause to eliminate it. Otherwise the right solution may be to simply identify new partners and move on.

Customers Satisfaction

At the end of the day it’s always about making sure that customers are happy and feel that they’re getting good value for what they are purchasing. Regardless, whichever side of the partnership your business is on it is critical to focus on providing great customer service. If you’re opening up your company’s rolodex of existing customers, you don’t want to jeopardize future business for yourself because the new JV marketing partner you’re introducing does not perform as expected. During the early stages of starting a new business relationship it is very important to test the waters early by referring a few loyal customers that will provide you with honest feedback about their experience with the new partner. Send over a couple of “new” leads as well and have a person within your organization act as the customer to get a real understanding of how the partner treats their clients. There is nothing worse than sending over a group of customers to a new partner only to receive emails and calls with negative experiences from those customers. This reflects on you as a business owner and can be avoided by properly implementing the new partnership.

Track Everything

Make sure that the partner is tracking referrals, new leads, products ordered, products delivered, products returned, marketing campaigns, ROI, brand reputation and any important data points related to your industry. It is very difficult to measure the true value of a joint venture marketing relationship without this information. You will have to rely on an open business partner to get many of those details and keep an open line of communication. By tracking everything related to each of your business partners it’s easier to accomplish the required accounting and to come to firm conclusions about which relationships are the most profitable and provide the greatest return. This will let you prioritize your time and resources for future activities and identify partners it may be better off to just walk away from. It is recommended that you monitor the market in general and understand what the market says about your business partners. As a business owner it can be very frustrating to have a partner do something unwise that creates a lot of negative press as this can reflect on your company, especially if you’re very active together with co-branded marketing.

Small business owners need to be prepared to spend the necessary time to monitor each business relationship and collect the required data during the month to accurately assess the success or failure of the partnership. When you identify a major issue related to servicing customers or accounting for the referrals that are being sent to a partner then set up a meeting to fix the issue as soon as possible or move away from doing business with the partner in the future. Allowing a negative partnership to linger just because you have already done all of the work to put the relationship together can be detrimental to the business and the brand for the long haul.

Christian Fea is CEO of Synertegic, Inc. A Joint Venture Marketing firm. He exemplifies how to profit from Joint Venture relationships by creating profit centers with minimal risk and maximum profitability.

Discover more Joint Venture Marketing Strategies join his free report on Joint Venture Marketing.